This is a study of the politics of public policy. It provides analysis of land policy and a study of policy making and of the Tanzanian state. Rather than deducing the state's agenda from its actions and the policies it produces, this thesis seeks to examine the interactions between the significant factions and personae of the Tanzanian political and administrative elites. This approach goes beyond identifying the divisions within the state between the Party leadership, the technocrats within the Government, and the Presidency. The thesis demonstrates how the ways in which conflicts are resolved, or deferred, and compromises are reached can lead to outcomes which do not necessarily constitute the sum of identifiable interests. In particular, a 'hidden level of government' is uncovered which consists of a technocratic elite which has, to a large extent, managed to depoliticise otherwise sensitive and controversial policy decisions and thus impose their stamp on policy outcomes. This approach to the analysis of rural land policies reveals the continuities in the state's approach to land issues. Since the colonial period, the objective of Tanzania's land policies has been to transform the countryside from the presumed inefficiencies of the 'traditional' modes of land use to fit the needs of a 'modern' and monetised economy. The modernising policies have provided the rationale for an authoritarian approach to land tenure and have been implemented by a centralised land administration. This thesis' historical analysis of the policies associated with the period of ujamaa and villagisation, and of the case studies of the 1983 Agricultural Policy and the 1995 National Land Policy, show that a modernising discourse and centralising administrative practices have remained at the centre of the policy agenda, despite dramatic changes in economic strategies and political institutions, and controversies over the future direction of land policies. The resulting land tenure regime relies on discretionary decision making by politicians and land officials and fails to provide workable procedures of checks and controls against malpractice. This study's detailed examination of the formulation of the National Land Policy reveals how a small elite of senior civil servants were able to hijack the policy making process and side-step political pressure for reform. They ignored, or appropriated selectively, the evidence and recommendations produced by comprehensive policy reviews, including the 1992 Presidential Commission of Inquiry, to maintain their direction of land policy while failing to address the evident shortcomings of the existing land policy regime.

This dissertation proposes and tests a theory that investigates the political process of modern property formation in land in postcolonial societies of the New World. Specifically, it examines how land tenure systems of private property -- that is, a statutory tenure in which individual property rights are specified, allocated, arbitrated by the state -- are designed and executed in contexts of limited state capacity and land abundance. It draws on extensive, under-tapped archival evidence from Imperial Brazil (1822-1889), the largest postcolonial state of the southern hemisphere. The data, collected over a year of rigorous and systematic archival research, include original ledgers of rural estates surveyed and recorded at the parish (i.e., sub-municipal) level; church inventories of slaves; economic and health-related data of slaves populations; agricultural and land prices; roll call votes and transcripts from parliamentary sessions; and biographical information on Brazil's most prominent elites. My dissertation argues that exogenous, disruptive events that abolish labor-repressive relations of production, such as slavery or the slave trade, open up an opportunity for central governments to bargain for the creation of systems of freehold tenure with local traditional elites. Many countries of the New World were unable to pursue liberal reforms that commodified land and dismantled land-related colonial privileges because of the lack of professional surveyors and cadastral technologies to survey, title, and register parcels accurately. Moreover, high land-to-man ratios turned land into a factor of production with little commercial value and did not offer clear incentives to local elites to demand secure and complete property rights. My dissertation argues that, when local elites' depend on forced or servile labor for production, abolition can make them prone to support a statutory yet highly stringent system of freehold tenure that legally blocks access to land to wage laborers. A system of freehold tenure in times of abolition can attain two goals. First, to close off alternatives to wage labor in the agricultural sector by assembling ownership statutes that exacerbate conditions of tenure insecurity. Second, as local elites controlling servile labor have higher stakes in the survival of labor dependence in agriculture, it can enhance quasi-voluntary compliance with new property rules that intend to avert squatting and keep rural labor inexpensive and abundant. By willingly demarcating boundaries, titling, and paying taxes, local elites cooperate with the new land statutes. In turn, central state officials can secure the logistical resources they need (i.e., fiscal revenue, documentary evidence of ownership, spatial coordinates of rural estates) to distinguish occupied from unoccupied tracts, police the hinterlands, carry out evictions, and formulate policies (e.g., employer subsidies) that would bias labor markets in favor of elite interests. I test these propositions by examining how a powerful class of plantation owners in Imperial Brazil supported the creation of, and quasi-voluntarily complied with, the Land Law of 1850 (the country's first modern property law in land) in response to the exogenous abolition of the Atlantic slave trade in 1831. I show that parliamentarians who were also planters favorably voted for the bill that introduced the Land Law in the Chamber of Deputies. Moreover, I show that, once the new law had been approved, local parishes that had a greater proportion of slaves were more likely to experience higher rates of regularization. Untaxed and unbounded plantations that long benefited from Portuguese medieval traditions ended up being regularized as self-demarcated, taxable private freeholds. My analysis of Imperial Brazil yields three main insights about how property formation in the New World was carried out. First, and in contrast to the European experience, the advent of private property in land in polities of Australasia or Latin America was not a top-down phenomenon but the result of an arduous political negotiation and patterns of societal co-production between rulers and traditional landlords from the colonial era. Second, land abundance, not scarcity, threatened landlords' material wealth: by promising independent, small-scale cultivation to free rural workers, it threatened landlords with labor shortages. Finally, and even though individual and absolute proprietorship was made the hegemonic form of tenure, national policymakers enacted provisions that neglected property rights to marginalized populations such as freed slaves, immigrants, convicts, or peons. Therefore, the recognition of individual property rights in these societies was highly selective and did not follow the liberal, egalitarian principle of equality before the law.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa's history led to an unequal distribution in land ownership, which is not conducive to democratic consolidation. Land refortn is the means to address this problem. However, land reform, part of the larger process of transformation, is a potentially dangerous process: it can have negative implications on the rule of law. The objective of this study is to provide an analysis of the dynamic relationship between land reform, the rule of law and transformation in South Africa, within the debate on democratic consolidation. One can distinguish two paradigms regarding democracy: the liberal paradigm and the liberationist paradigm. These two paradigms have divergent views on the way land reform and transformation should be implemented, and what the goal of these two processes is. The liberal paradigm would seem to be more favourable for democratic consolidation, while the liberationist paradigm is a breeding ground for populist transformation. Furthermore, the negotiated constitutional settlement has left land reform with an ambiguity. On the one hand the constitution forces the govemment to address land reform, but on the other hand it firmly entrenches the private property rights by enforcing the 'willing buyer, willing seller' principle, which makes the process more costly and time consuming. The main hypothesis of this study is: Demographic indicators (race, party affiliation and provincial setting) influence support or rejection of the land reform policies of the South African govemment. Tbe dependent variable is 'support or rejection of the government's land reform policies'. Support for the govemment's land reform policies is indicative of the liberal paradigm and rejection of the govemment's policies is indicative of the liberationist paradigm. It is found that the majority of South Africans reject the govemment's land reform policies. However, strong divisions are evident. Respondents differ along racial, party affiliation and provincial lines. Thus, the liberationist paradigm dominates, but the liberal paradigm has a strong presence, creating an ideologically divided society. This means that the legitimacy of South Africa's land reform project, as well as the legitimacy of the constitution, is under stress. This does not bode well for democratic consolidation, as the rule of law is under severe threat. Thus, one can conclude that land reform is not going to make a positive contribution to the consolidation of South Africa's democracy, if a substantial financial injection is not found to increase the efficiency of the process. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suid-Afrika se geskiedenis het aanleiding gegee tot 'n ongelyke verspreiding van grondeienaarskap. Dit is nie gunstig vir demokratiese konsolidasie nie. Grondhervorming IS die mamer waarmee die probleem aangespreek kan word. Grondhervorming, deel van die groter proses van transformasie, is egter 'n potensieel gevaarlike proses: dit kan negatiewe implikasies vir regsoewereiniteit hê. Die doel van hierdie tesis is om 'n analise van die dinamiese wisselwerking tussen grondhervorming, regsoewereiniteit en transformasie te verskaf, binne die debat oor demokratiese konsolidasie. Daar kan aangaande demokrasie tussen twee paradigmas onderskei word: die liberale paradigma en die bevrydings (liberationist) paradigma. Hierdie twee paradigmas het teenstrydige perspektiewe oor die manier waarop grondhervorming, sowel as transformasie, geïmplementeer behoort te word, sowel as wat die doel van hierdie twee prosesse is. Die liberale paradigma is meer geskik vir demokratiese konsolidasie, terwyl die bevrydings paradigma 'n teelaarde vir populistiese transformasie is. Verder het die onderhandelde grondwetlike skikking grondhervorming in 'n teenstrydigheid geplaas. Aan die een kant vereis die grondwet dat die regering grondhervorming moet aanspreek, maar aan die anderkant bied dit 'n ferm onderskraging van private eiedomsreg deur op die 'gewillige koper, gewillige verkoper' beginsel aan te dring. Dit maak die grondhervormings proses langer en duurder. Die hoof hipotese van die studie is: Demografiese indikatore (ras, partyaffiliasie en provinsie) beïnvloed ondersteuning of verwerpmg van die regering se grondhervormingsbeleid. Die afhanklike veranderlike IS 'ondersteuning of verwerping van die regering se grondhervormingsbeleid '. Ondersteuning van die regering se grondhervormingsbeleid dui op die liberale paradigma, en die verwerping daarvan dui op die bevrydings paradigma. Daar word bevind dat die meerderheid Suid-Afrikaners die regenng se Respondente verskil volgens ras, partyaffiliasie en provinsie. Dus, die bevrydings paradigma domineer, maar die liberale paradigma het ook 'n sterk teenwoordigheid. Dit sorg vir 'n ideologies verdeelde samelewing. Dit beteken dat die legitimiteit van Suid-Afrika se grondhervormings projek, sowel as die legitimiteit van die grondwet, in gedrang is. Dit is nie 'n goeie teken vir demokratiese konsolidasie nie, aangesien dit regsoewereiniteit in die gedrang bring. Daarom kan daar tot die gevolg gekom word dat grondhervorming nie 'n positiewe bydrae ten opsigte van die konsolidasie van Suid-Afrikaanse demokrasie sal maak nie, tensy daar 'n beduidende finansiële inspuiting gevind kan word.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Master of Arts in Industrial Sociology in the Graduate School for the Humanities, Social Sciences and Education in the faculty of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand November 2016 / The study pursues the examination of transition in peri-urban areas through the case study of Midvaal Local Municipality. Peri-urban areas are experiencing a transition from rural urban coexistence to urban dominance. The peri-urban urban concept remains a complex one to define. Peri-urban concept has been accepted to mean the urban and rural linkages that are mutually reinforcing. Literature has reflected on urban bias developments of peri-urban areas with rural function being subdued. There is evidence of competing tensions between rural and urban functions. These tensions arise from competing interests such as residential estate developments and industrialisation of peri-urban zones. The study explores the urban bias extended to peri-urban zones that has potential to underscore rural functions, such as farming. Theoretical constructs assist to contextualise the transition in the peri-urban areas. There is convergence in the body of literature over transition of the peri-urban areas albeit not homogeneous. Unique country and within country transition of peri-urban zones make it difficult to forecast growth trajectory of peri-urban zones. The study finds that peri-urban developments have taken an affluent development trend, redefining the peri-urban as zones of high consumption. It is established that ultra-rich people are attracted to Midvaal. Accordingly, there are exclusive upmarket estates, namely, Eye of Africa golfing estate and Blue Saddle Ranches equestrian estate. These affluent development trends fracture the conceptualisation of peri-urban areas as vulnerable, poor areas that are a consequence of urban sprawl. Some of the pro-urban developments in periurban areas results in irrecoverable loss of agricultural land. Often, urban bias functions influence the neighbouring farm portions through land use or even influence price of land in these zones. There is an appeal of middle and upper class to peri-urban zones owing to country nostalgia, cheap land, security, recreation, ambiance, tranquillity and anti-urbanism. Peri-urban areas are being redefined along class lines in the South African socio-economic context. Racial property ownership patterns have been replaced by class patterns. The study establishes that ownership patterns within the estates under study are above the middle class income bracket of South Africa, rather a preserve of the affluent. The study establishes that Midvaal Municipality consents to the development of estates. There is an underlying motivation for the local authorities to be amenable to the upmarket estate developments. The municipality is actuated by revenue linked to upmarket residential estate developments. Developments of these estates inject revenue growth in the area. Upfront, developers invest in the laying of bulk infrastructure which is later taken over by the municipality. This type of relationship, if not guarded may yield elite capture of peri-urban. Development trends in peri-urban areas are not homogeneous. Some peri-urban zones still reflect a state of neglect, vulnerability and are homes of the poor. Whilst the municipality boasts being premised on agriculture strategy in its objectives as an agri-tropolis local authority, there is little evidence to suggest vibrant agriculture and contribution of same towards the GDP of the municipality. Instead, the growth path is dominated by non-agricultural functions and activities. There are contradictions and tensions of agricultural pursuit over industrial and residential developments. / MT2017

This study explores how land and natural resources in rural communities are accessed, used, and managed in livelihoods. In particular it examines first, crop field tenure, and livelihoods in natural resources. Second it explores factors that mediate access, use and control of land and natural resources within village communities. Empirical data are explored from two rural village communities of Kamena and St. Joseph located in the Northern and Copperbelt provinces of Zambia respectively. The study argues first that land and natural resource rights underpin land based livelihood activities of rural people, the most important of which are subsistence and cash crop farming, and the gathering and processing of common property resources. Second the thesis argues that land tenure reform impacts on the rural population as a whole and not just on cash crop farmers, and should thus situate the needs of farmers for secure tenure within the wider context of diverse rural household livelihood strategies. The study concludes that social differences (along the axes of wealth, gender and descent), traditional institutions (uxorilocal or virilocal marriage, polygamy, inheritance and succession) and government policy are central in determining access, use and control of land and natural resources in rural livelihoods. It is submitted that, rather than being replaced, customary land tenure, and traditional land administration structures in rural Zambia should be adapted to current social and economic realities in which individuals and households create their multiple livelihoods. Further, it is concluded that land tenure reform is not a sufficient condition for rural livelihood sustainability. Thus complementary agrarian measures to address the vulnerability context of rural households are recommended.

I examine whether policies that specifically target gender inequality improve the well-being of women and girls. In the first paper I study the impact of Ethiopia’s gendered land certification programs on household consumption patterns and infant and under-five mortality. After years of communism during which all land was nationalized, in 1998, Ethiopia embarked on a land tenure reform program. The reform began in Tigray region where land certificates were issued to household heads, who were largely male. In a second phase carried out during 2003-2005, three other regions, Amhara, Oromia, and SNNP, issued land certificates jointly to household heads and spouses, presenting variation in land tenure security by gender. I leverage this variation in land certification across regions and over time, to study whether inclusion of women yielded different effects. Using data from the Ethiopia Demographic and Household Surveys and longitudinal data from the Ethiopia Rural Household Survey I construct a treatment group of male-headed households in joint land certification regions and a comparison group of male-headed households in Tigray and study changes between the two groups after implementation of their respective land certification programs. I find that, compared to household-head land certification, joint certification was accompanied by increased household consumption of food, health care, women’s clothing, and girls’ clothing, and a decrease in girls’ infant and under-five mortality. These effects are largely restricted to households with illiterate mothers indicating that inclusion of women in land tenure reform empowered previously disempowered women who then used their improved position to allocate more household resources to their daughters. In the second paper, I examine the relationship between women's land ownership and participation in transactional sex, multiple sexual partnerships and unprotected sex, and HIV infection status. Using a sample of 5,511 women working in the agricultural sector from the 1998, 2003 and 2008–09 Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys, I find that women's land ownership is associated with fewer sexual partners in the past year and lower likelihood of engaging in transactional sex, indicators of reduced survival sex, but is not associated with unprotected sex with casual partners, indicating no difference in safer sex negotiation. Land ownership is also associated with reduced HIV infection among women most likely to engage in survival sex, i.e., women not under the household headship of a husband, but not among women living in husband-headed households, for whom increased negotiation for safer sex would be more relevant. The third paper examines the prevalence of son preference in families of East and South Asian origin living in the United States by investigating parental time investments in children using American Time Use Surveys. The results show that East and South Asian mothers spend more total time and more quality time with their young (aged 0-5 years) sons than with young daughters while fathers’ time with young children is gender neutral. I find gender specialization in time with children aged 6-17 with fathers spending more time with sons and mothers spending more time with daughters. These findings document health and social consequences of gender inequities within households. The findings also highlight that gender-sensitive policies have the potential to transform intrahousehold dynamics and help realize gender equality policy objectives.

How the state controls village cadres greatly shapes state-peasant relations. This study attempts to examine the relative and varying strengths of state power, village democracy, and social forces in structuring behavior patterns of village cadres in contemporary China. Particularly, three dimensions of state penetration into the countryside, Party organization, the bureaucratic system, and policy campaigns, are highlighted. It is widely accepted that village cadres are structured by top-down Party and bureaucratic control, bottom-up village elections, and informal accountability embedded in rural solidary groups. However, the conditions under which one particular mechanism plays a dominant role need to be further examined. It is also well known that local states seek to control village cadres by routine mechanisms such as Party organizations and the bureaucratic system. However, non-routine policy campaigns are not fully studied. By examining village cadre behavior in land transfers in agricultural rural areas and land expropriation in industrializing rural areas in Shandong province, this research has several findings. First, state penetration is the most powerful explanatory mechanism among others, and village democracy and societal groupings are undermined by state intervention and market forces. Second, local states in agricultural rural areas seem more developmental in land transfers while their counterparts in industrializing rural areas have more predatory elements in land expropriation. Third, village-level controlled comparisons indicate that varying strengthens of state penetration, depending on the implementation of Party organization, the bureaucratic system, and policy campaigns, greatly shape the degree of involvement in land tenure by village cadres. This study has implications for theories in comparative politics. First, the relative explanatory strength of state power, democracy, and social forces needs to be examined in specific contexts: varying issues, regions, sectors, timing and so forth. Second, the state has to be unpacked and differentiated. Third, policy campaigns characterized by ideological control and mass mobilization are powerful policy instruments and a useful remedy for rigid bureaucracy. It indicates that China’s distinctive state penetration can provide a new perspective in conceptualizing the state and studying state infrastructural power. / published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study explores how land and natural resources in rural communities are accessed, used, and managed in livelihoods. In particular it examines first, crop field tenure, and livelihoods in natural resources. Second it explores factors that mediate access, use and control of land and natural resources within village communities. Empirical data are explored from two rural village communities of Kamena and St. Joseph located in the Northern and Copperbelt provinces of Zambia respectively. The study argues first that land and natural resource rights underpin land based livelihood activities of rural people, the most important of which are subsistence and cash crop farming, and the gathering and processing of common property resources. Second the thesis argues that land tenure reform impacts on the rural population as a whole and not just on cash crop farmers, and should thus situate the needs of farmers for secure tenure within the wider context of diverse rural household livelihood strategies. The study concludes that social differences (along the axes of wealth, gender and descent), traditional institutions (uxorilocal or virilocal marriage, polygamy, inheritance and succession) and government policy are central in determining access, use and control of land and natural resources in rural livelihoods. It is submitted that, rather than being replaced, customary land tenure, and traditional land administration structures in rural Zambia should be adapted to current social and economic realities in which individuals and households create their multiple livelihoods. Further, it is concluded that land tenure reform is not a sufficient condition for rural livelihood sustainability. Thus complementary agrarian measures to address the vulnerability context of rural households are recommended.

South Africa’s land redistribution policy (1994-2008) has been widely publicised, and has come under scrutiny of late from the public, private and government spheres, highlighting a need for research in this area. The research examines progress in South Africa’s land redistribution programme in two of KwaZulu-Natal’s district municipalities, Uthungulu and iLembe. Specifically the research investigates whether the government has paid above market prices when purchasing sugarcane farmland for redistribution in these districts. Moreover, it is illustrated how productivity on redistributed farms has been affected with the changes in ownership. To investigate the research questions, reviews of theories pertaining to property rights, land reform and market structures were conducted. Moreover, two cases studies were conducted in the districts of Uthungulu and iLembe, with assistance from the Department of Land Affairs, Inkezo Land Company and the South African Cane Growers Association. The case study data indicate that above ordinary market prices have been paid (2004-2006) by the government for sugarcane farmland in the districts concerned, and further that productivity has been negatively impacted ‘during’ and ‘post‘ transfer, in the majority of cases.